Cuomo responds to Percoco: Attacks are ‘political garbage,’ will push to ban outside income

ALBANY — Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he will make banning outside income for state legislators a campaign issue this year in response to federal felony convictions against the governor’s former top aide and long-time friend Joe Percoco.

Cuomo, a Democrat who has been positioning himself for a possible 2020 presidential bid and says he is seeking a third term this year, took press questions for the first time since the Tuesday verdict after joining students protesting gun violence.

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Cuomo said that it was “political garbage” to suggest he was aware that Percoco was trading official favors in exchange for payments from an energy and real estate firm, and that the verdict would weigh on his political aspirations.

The governor noted that he has never been charged or accused of a crime, but said falsely that his name did not come up during Percoco’s seven-week trial — it did, starting on the first day, and jurors were shown a picture of the governor.

The governor has pushed to ban outside income for state lawmakers for several years, at first as a response to federal charges against former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. Legislators, particularly Republicans, have been resistant to the idea, though Democrats who dominate the Assembly passed a bill in 2016 limiting their outside earnings.

The governor also said he was aware that Percoco worked from his government office in Manhattan while he was managing Cuomo’s 2014 reelection bid, a possible violation of state laws prohibiting public resources for campaign activities.

Cuomo said he believed Percoco was working on “transition” matters, but said that policies regarding how people are hired and leave the administration have been tightened.

Here is Cuomo’s full exchange with reporters about Percoco, starting with a statement:

“I respect the verdict. I was an assistant district attorney. I was the attorney general. I respect the justice system and I respect the verdict that the jury came up with. On a personal level, this is both sad and shocking. I feel for the Percoco family. He has two young daughters who are going to have to live with this trauma, and I feel for them and the pain they’re going to go through. The behavior violates everything that my administration is about. We strive for total integrity, and this is a total aberration from the people who work in the administration. I’ve worked with all sorts of people in government — in the federal government, state government, local government — and we have the finest level of state employees who I’ve ever worked with. This is a total aberration from that.“

“People will do wrong things. People will make bad and wrong decisions. Our job in government is to have the systems in place to catch those bad acts, and that’s the job that we have to perform.”

Governor, some of the good-government groups have said what we need from you now is to lean into ethics reforms, put them at the top of the agenda and muscle the Legislature to act. Will you push for ethics reform?

“The single best ethics reform which makes everything else moot is, no outside income in government. When you have a person who works in government and also gets paid on the outside for another employer, that conflict always causes problems. And the strictest ethics reform is no outside income, period. You work for government, you’re a legislator, there’s no outside income. That’s the reform I’ve been pushing, I’m going to continue to push. The Legislature refuses it because they believe it’s a part-time position. You can’t be a part-time legislator. First of all, it’s not a part-time job. They work full-time. And if you’re a legislator and a lawyer or a legislator and a business consultant those relationships always pose a conflict and they have to stop. I’ve been pushing it for four years, I’m going to push it this year and I’m going to make it a campaign issue this November.”

But Joe Lhota, whom you appointed chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, has outside income.

“There’s a difference between people who are serving on boards and don’t get paid by government — and are basically volunteering their service. If they volunteer their service then of course they have a separate job because they have to feed their family. But there are conflict rules that apply in that situation also.”

“When the situation with Mr. Percoco first came up, which was about two years ago, we reviewed both our entrance and exit policies to government so that when you leave government, you leave. Period. And all the connections are severed. People know you’re no longer a government employee, you don’t have that authority. And when you enter government we’re going to have a more thorough review of past relationships to see if they pose any particular conflict.”

“In this case, existing rules were broken. It’s not that we didn’t have rules — we had rules and the rules were broken. That was this situation, it’s not that there was an omission of the policy.”

What do you say to people tying you personally to this?

“Look at the facts, right? We’re in the political silly season and people can say whatever they want to say … This was a two-year trial-slash-investigation. There was absolutely no suggestion ever made that I had anything to do with anything. It was an exhaustive investigation, and exhaustive trial, and there was never suggestion about any involvement by me. So when they raise political garbage, an insightful reporter like you will say, ‘But that’s not the fact because we covered the trial and the governor’s involvement was never mentioned, his name was never mentioned.’”

Tell us about the very beginning when you found out about this and were called into the U.S. attorney’s office.

“Marcia, when I first heard about it, I was shocked. I was just shocked. And I’ve had emotions over this for the past two years. I’m shocked about the behavior. I’m sad for his family — he has two young daughters, I have three daughters, his daughters will have to have gone through this experience and go to school and deal with it and they’ll have to deal with it going forward. It’s also a violation of everything my administration stands for. We strive for total integrity. I’ve dedicated my life to public service. My father dedicated his life to public service, and you can agree or disagree with my positions, but the integrity is paramount. I also, my entire administration has been hurt on a personal level, because this is the finest group of people I’ve worked with. Many of them are former prosecutors. This is the exact opposite of everything they represent, so it has been a painful process across the board.”

When Joe Percoco left state government, did you know he was still working out of your office?

“When he left state government he would come back into the office to handle transition matters. He was there for a very long time, he was in an important position, and he would come back to handle the transition — which is fine. But there should be no other work done from a government office besides that transition work, and in the trial there was a suggestion that there was, and that’s a violation of the rules.”

Did you believe he was doing work on behalf of the state government at that time?